


Golden Circles

by Dagonet (AgentDagonet)



Series: Eggsy Sees Ghosts [4]
Category: Kingsman (Movies)
Genre: Gen, Golden Circle, but Eggsy can see Ghosts, by request
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-23
Updated: 2020-04-25
Packaged: 2021-02-23 09:03:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,062
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23275642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AgentDagonet/pseuds/Dagonet
Summary: Leeef said:For the Eggsy sees Ghosts series. Roxy and Merlin's deaths in Golden Circle.
Series: Eggsy Sees Ghosts [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1606978
Comments: 6
Kudos: 24





	1. Just This Once, Everybody Lives

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Leeef](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leeef/gifts).



> This chapter is an extension of the [He Is Not Dead Yet](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22325797) timeline, where Eggsy being able to see ghosts is what makes him realise that Harry is alive.
> 
> The next chapter will be an extension of the [Do you Believe in Life After Death](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22325458) timeline, where Eggsy (and Merlin) can see ghosts and Harry is actually dead.

Eggsy wasn’t really sure if he should be thanking or cursing whatever strange powers-that-be gave him his ability to see ghosts, most days. For a few reasons, actually, starting with not everyone stayed behind, obviously, and often the people he wanted to see most were those who moved On without pause. Which meant that he didn’t always know if he was waiting for a ghost or should be looking for an injured friend, in the wake of tragedy.

And, unfortunately, tragedy was far too easy to come by in Kingsman; this made the concern a constant thought in the back of his mind.

He’d been at dinner with Tilde’s family, pretending to know a lot more than he did because that was the only way he could remain in her life, when James had simply appeared where he hadn’t been a moment before. His face was contorted in a way Eggsy knew spelt disaster, and a moment later Alistair was just beside him, shock in every line of his features.

Needless to say, Eggsy had made his excuses and practically ran from the room before locking himself in the first bathroom he stumbled across.

‘Fuck, Perce, I am so sorry-’

‘Save your apologies, Eggsy and get your arse back to Kingsman.’ James had never spoken to him so curtly, and that alone was enough for him to spring into action, sprinting out the door while sending an automated text Tilde’s way. _Kingsman, sorry, got to run_ was definitely not the sort of text Tilde enjoyed receiving, but it was a common enough one to have been added to his automatic responses- and it was one of the thousand reasons they hadn’t succeeded romantically.

He didn’t really _want_ to think about the source of James’ stress, but as Kingsman flickered in and out of his periphery he couldn’t help but keep note. _Percival, Bors, Kay, Geraint, Lamorak, Bedivere, Pelleas, Dagonet_ -

‘Shit,’ Eggsy had already set the jet to make its way to the Manor as quick as possible, and had pulled a set of glasses from a cabinet with shaky hands, ‘come on, come on, _come on.’_ He flicked through channels at a frantic pace, not letting himself connect the static he kept running into with the ghosts surrounding him. At least that’s what he told himself.

He landed next to a crater, smoke and dust still billowing up from within, and scanned the rubble with disbelieving eyes. Kingsman ( _no_ , he corrected, _the mansion)_ was gone. Nothing but dust and smoke and the taste of ash on the wind.

‘-ggsy... _Eggsy! Get your arse over here.’_ Eggsy shook himself to awareness and found himself bounding toward James without consciously deciding to do so. He followed his gesture with his eyes, and found himself looking at a handle and a mostly-covered door. There was a faint thudding, and for a moment Eggsy was convinced that he was hearing rubble fall like chunks of iceberg into the sea, before he connected the sound to the source.

‘Fuck,’ Eggsy breathed before leaping into the crater, heedless of the sharp debris, ‘hold on, hold on, _I’m coming_!’ He yelled the last, hoping beyond measure that the definitely-panicking person trapped within could hear him. Would know that someone was coming for them. He didn’t let himself guess as to who had survived the attack while he moved anything he could nudge away from the door, didn’t let himself listen to the murmering behind him even as it grew with more voices, more layers, more-

The door swung open, would have hit Eggsy full on had he not been able to jump out of the way. Well, more trip backward over something he hadn’t been paying attention to in his bid to remove himself from the trajectory but either way he was (mostly) unharmed as someone came out, coughing. 

‘Galahad, are you there?’ It sounds like it’s coming from far away despite the glasses still being on his face. It’s said with the kind of resignation Eggsy’s heard from telemarketers, from people passing flyers on the kerb. The one that says “I’ve been at this for a while, I know you won’t answer, but I have to keep trying.” Merlin’s voice was in his ear, Harry was supposed to be watching Daisy for the day at his mum’s place back at the Estates. He’d never been more thankful for his mum’s stubborn streak than he was at this moment, somehow certain that the manor was the least of Kingsman’s losses, going by his spectral entourage. He’d flown here straight from Sweden as the behest of James and Percival which now that he let himself think about it could only have meant that-

A small, solid, body knocked him right back off his feet and tears (and no small amount of sweat, and perhaps a bit of blood) soaked through his shirt at an alarming rate. He ran a hand from the top of the head pressed to his sternum to their neck, both to check for swelling and just to reassure himself that they were solid. Present. Real. _Alive_.

‘I’ve got you,’ Eggsy whispered, hiding his own tears in her hair, as the embers of Kingsman continued to die around them.

\---

Eggsy stared at the laptop blankly, Harry sat beside him in a similar state, and Roxy in their ears trying fruitlessly to get their attention. The battle had been over for a handful of moments, but they hadn’t known what to do afterward. They’d thrown a man into a _meat grinder_ (and who that person was had Eggsy’s stomach twisted into pretzels. He’d doubted Harry after _everything_ and what kind of an agent, let alone friend, did that make him?) and saved the world and now that all was said and done they were able to… stop. 

To let themselves realise what had happened, what they had lost, from the bombing of the mansion to their breaking in to PoppyLand and-

‘The fuck are you mourning for, you daft prick,’ Eggsy steeled himself to turn and face a ghost he never wanted to meet. Just another in the seemingly endless list of people he’d lost in the last couple weeks. James and Percival were back with Roxy on the jet, the rest of Kingsman had thought better of following them into battle, correctly assuming that they would be a distraction far more than they could be a help. ‘I’m right here.’

‘You lucky _bastard_.’ Harry replied, and Eggsy forgot to breathe for a moment.

‘I was trying to tell you, Eggsy- Merlin’s vitals didn’t stop, though they did flicker for a bit. He’s stable, if a bit shorter than he was before his rousing performance.’ Roxy’s voice was shaky, tight, the way it got in the midst of crying and Eggsy felt no shame in adding his tears to the lot.

‘Galahad?’ Eggsy took a steadying breath before turning toward Harry, and thus Merlin. He wasn’t sure what he was expecting, but it certainly wasn’t Harry on his stomach like a teenage girl at a slumber party, resting on his elbows next to Benny and Jet’s doggy doors and Merlin-

Merlin was a sight that Eggsy could have gone without seeing. His suit was torn and dirty, he had a multitude of cuts, his fingers were bloody (fresh blood, new blood, from _dragging himself from the explosion_ ) and his legs. Well. They weren’t. Eggsy wasn’t sure if he wanted to throw up or faint but neither was an option, and without conscious thought he had thrown himself from the stool and slid to the side not occupied by Harry. He lifted a shaking hand as if to touch him, to reassure himself that Merlin was alive, but it seemed that Eggsy’s arrival had been enough for Merlin to allow himself to lose consciousness.

‘Hamish!’ Eggsy and Harry reacted in sync, as they had been their entire time in PoppyLand, one hand each going to Merlin’s shoulders and the other to the small of his back, and moved as one to the counter. They unceremoniously knocked the briefcase-laptop over the edge, neither caring that the fall was broken by the madwoman’s body, and set Merlin down as gently as they could.

‘How are we getting him home?’ Harry didn’t answer, face pale and eyes wide, one hand resting not-so-casually over a pulse point. With how it was trembling it likely wasn’t very useful, but Eggsy was never one to tell others how to cope.

‘You need to fix his tourniquets, but I have medical assistance on the way.’ Roxy whispered in his glasses, and both men spring into action- Eggsy grabbed a couple aprons that were hanging nearby and tore the ties clean off as Harry checked the makeshift-triage while glaring at the dirty stumps as if they had mortally offended him. Which, honestly, it wasn’t that far off- the loss meant that they hadn’t imagined the explosion, but it also meant he was _alive_ -

There was a flicker of blue, so quick Eggsy was convinced he imagined it, but then it happened again and Eggsy’s heart went into overtime.

‘How long ‘til help gets here, Rox?’ Eggsy cursed in his mind, not wanting to alert Harry to the precarious situation before them. Not wanting to make it any worse than it already was. This was his burden to bear.

‘Fifteen minutes out now, Galahad.’ Eggsy nodded to himself, and leant forward to pull the strips of cloth from Harry’s hands. Harry continued to look back and forth from Merlin’s face and the remains of his leg, watching for any signs of further distress, but Eggsy busied himself with pulling the cloth taut and steadily ignoring the rhythmic blue that he immediately knew matched the pulse Harry was desperately monitoring.

He’d never hated his ability more.

He’d been there for someone coming Back, he’d been there for someone moving On, had spoken to ghosts centuries old who had long since forgotten what they came Back for, he’d been there for all the moments in between; but he had somehow managed not to be there as someone struggled to Stay. 

Eggsy looked around the room for something, anything, that would help more than the haphazard tourniquets they’d fashioned. There was a first aid kit in the corner, but knowing Poppy it would only have what the 50s considered necessary for a kit and as much fun as that could be it wouldn’t solve Merlin’s problem. It wouldn’t even vaguely help.

But that could. It was a stretch, it wasn’t made for this, but anything was worth a shot at this rate.

Eggsy ran to the first aid kit, and on the shelf next to it were packets of Statesman Alpha Gel. Three or four sets, wrapped in gaudy yellow fabric with fucking _bows_ but they were there and Eggsy snatched up the lot before sprinting back to Merlin and Harry.

‘Harry. Oi, Harry,’ He looked up from where his finger had been running along the seam of the tourniquet, ‘think this’ll help?’ Eggsy dropped them to the counter before pressing one to Harry’s chest

‘Well,’ Harry began, throat obviously tight but trying to play it off, ‘I’m fairly certain that legs aren’t quite as complicated as brains so it should stabilise him at the least.’ 

Eggsy wanted desperately to be doing anything else, but pulled the elastic stuff firmly across the open wound before stabbing the plungers just below the tourniquet and Harry did the same. Eggsy let himself crumple gracefully back into a bar stool when it looked like everything would hold, and Roxy let them know that Merlin’s vitals were slowly stabilising. He watched with bated breath as the elements merged, as the gel seemed to do what it had when he’d used it on (traitorous) Whiskey only a short while ago. 

What was it about Kingsman that fucked with time passing?

‘You did good.’ Eggsy looked up and locked eyes with his dad, the man was on the other side, forearms resting on the counter top, and Eggsy gave him a shaky grin before he reached a hand out to Harry, and pulled a limp hand into his own and squeezed it tight.

‘We win. Shit’s fucked, but we’ll figure it out as we go. Together. Ain’t that humanity’s great superpower? Teamwork? We’ll get it done.’


	2. And Then They Were Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is an extension of the [Do you Believe in Life After Death](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22325458) timeline, where Eggsy (and Merlin) can see ghosts and Harry is actually dead.
> 
> I have no self control, and couldn't find a good way to have Merlin's death here, so there's actually going to be a third part that focuses on that. I think. Maybe there's be more. What do I know, I'm just the writer.

Eggsy had grown used to the comings and goings of his spectral friends. 

Harry spent about half of his time with Merlin at Kingsman, and the other half with Lee and Eggsy wherever they ended up. Lee spent the half of his time not with Harry and Eggsy with Michelle and Daisy. Daisy was still young enough to see him, most kids could until someone beat reality into their skulls like the Master’s drums, and Lee took great joy in bringing some light to his surrogate daughter’s life that had been so dark already. He knew he could go On but didn’t feel like doing so. Free will was intrinsic to consciousness, apparently, and Lee was determined to break every rule he came across.

Roxy hadn’t asked Eggsy to talk to James for her since; had never asked for further proof or the answers to family mysteries. That didn’t stop James from bombarding Eggsy with knowledge to throw at her anyway, because he was an arsehole like that. But, partially due to his arseholery, Eggsy was getting better at ignoring the ghosts that tended to appear and disappear with startling regularity. He didn’t twitch when there was an extra presence at his back while sitting with Tilde’s family, nor at the next dozen as he calmly made his way out of the room with some half-said excuse.

Eggsy didn’t look up as Percival joined James, the two embracing tearfully as Eggsy curled into a ball at the base of the stairs. Tucked into a shadow, in a corner of the palace Tilde had once told him had become her quiet place, Eggsy made no noise. He kept his head tucked into his legs, eyes pressed to his knees, arms curled and hands pressed against his ears as if it would block them out.

All of them.

He ignored the moisture leaking through his pant legs, he ignored the way his muscles protested being clenched this tightly, he ignored the increasing murmuring around him and he ignored the way his stomach roiled at the thoughts he was  _ definitely  _ ignoring in his head. There was a spot of cold on his left shoulder, vaguely hand-shaped with what Eggsy  _ knew _ was a thumb resting just atop his collarbone.

‘ _ Harry _ ,’ Eggsy choked out, an unflattering glob of moisture stuck between his top lip and his pant leg. He looked up and found only his dad and Harry in front of him, grateful beyond words that the others had chosen to stay out of sight.

Though not out of earshot.

His dad’s face was heartbroken, the way it had been the first time Eggsy had been struck by Dean and the first time he’d seen Michelle fall into a drug-induced stupor, and Harry’s was as tense as it had been before Kentucky. His eyes were distraught, but his posture said “I have to keep it together” and Eggsy dreaded whatever was going to come from his mouth.

‘It seems that Kingsman’s been targeted, Eggsy.’ Eggsy scoffed and wiped his face with a sleeve in reply to Harry’s statement, but it seemed he wasn’t done. ‘The mansion is gone, as are all recorded private residences.’

‘ _ Fuck,  _ Haz, Brandon was watchin’-’ There was a moment where Eggsy could see Brandon in front of him, a hand lifted, and then it was gone. Eggsy hoped with everything he had that he’d been able to move On with no fuss. There were enough ghosts in their lives without literal ones.

There were two small bits of cold on the front of his legs, and Eggsy looked down from Harry’s gaze to meet JB’s. The pug’s mouth was open, tongue lolling out to one side, as if greeting him after returning home.

_ What kind of unfinished business could a dog have?  _ But quick as the thought had entered his head JB was gone, a soft bark echoing in his ears.

Somehow that’s what got Eggsy moving- he sent some half-nonsense message to Tilde about having become suddenly ill before making his way to his car. It was lucky that he’d driven himself, though he just hadn’t wanted to keep someone waiting while he attempted to worm his way into the Swedish Royal Family’s good graces. Well, mostly the Monarchs’, but what was the difference.

And besides, a relationship that had begun with a hasty bumming in a villainous lair was bound to have some struggle in the face of domesticity. Well, whatever passed for such in these circumstances.

All this to say that Eggsy was trying very hard to ignore the woman sat in the passenger seat. The cool spot on his shoulder from her hand, the sad twist of her lips that he could  _ just _ see from the corner of his eye. There was someone missing, and getting there ( _ where _ his mind wondered, but he didn’t let the thought go very far) as quick as possible was more important than anything.

He’d never been more glad for his mum’s refusal to take what Eggsy had offered her. The house, the money, the security- she’d grown used to a way of life, and she could handle herself. Weren’t no charity case, she said, despite knowing that Eggsy had not once thought of their family as a charity case. But she’d been determined to find her footing on her own, and today Eggsy allowed tears to fall.

Because by refusing everything, no matter how much it’d stung at the time, she’d saved them. His mum and Daisy weren’t in any of Kingsman’s files, though Dean was, but Eggsy’d known he was setting the prick up for  _ something _ when he’d put his name on that body bag. He’d made peace with that long ago.

Eggsy’d dealt with judgement and consequences and the moments you wondered if the next step was even worth taking. He’d once believed that the universe only threw what you were able to handle at you- no matter if you believed that or not. 

And, maybe sometimes it felt like you failed, but in the end you learnt something, didn’t you? You learnt not to go after a problem that way again. Ashes of disaster and the roses of success and all that.

Loss didn’t quite work like that. It didn’t have right and wrong steps, it didn’t have an equation backing it along the way, it didn’t have any way to justify itself; it didn’t have any logic because  _ loss itself is illogical _ . 

By the time he’d reached the shop (or, well, where the shop had been) he’d give up on trying to ignore the hand on his arm. He couldn’t bring himself to leave the car, didn’t want to face what little remained of what had become the saving grace of his life, and sat there in silence.

‘Eggsy-’

‘The fuck am I goin’ to do, Rox? If they got you that’s HQ gone, an’ Arthur, and all of R&D and-’

‘You try.’ Roxy shrugged elegantly, something he’d long since stopped questioning her ability to do. ‘You keep going because that’s all I’ve ever known you to do- even when you’re hurt and scared you keep fucking going and today… Well, I’m not going to go all traumatic backstory on you and demand that you avenge my death-’ Eggsy laughed without meaning to, without feeling it, and Roxy looked at him sadly, ‘but I  _ am _ going to say that there’s no one I’d rather have defending my memory.’

‘I ain’t cut out for this shit, Roxy.’ Eggsy let his forehead rest on the steering wheel, exhausted and drained and knowing he had miles to go before he could rest.

‘That’s the biggest load of shit I’ve ever heard you say- and you once told me you could smell thunder.’

‘An’ I’m telling you that that’s a real thing but now really ain’t the time to be debating it. Whoever started this shit’s got to be stopped  _ yesterday. _ ’

‘ _ There _ you are.’ Percival said with no small amount of approval, and Eggsy couldn’t have said when he’d reappeared in the car. Or had he ever left? Had he been along for Eggsy’s dissociative drive from Tilde’s to what remained of their once great organisation?

And, if the last were true, who else had been stuck in this metal box with him?

‘Honestly, for a minute there I thought the shock of this’d broken you.’ And there was James, present as ever, how had Eggsy missed him?

‘He’s made of sterner shite than this,’ Lee interjected, arms swung across the back of the rear seats, hands barely visible behind James and Harry’s necks.

Harry, who was looking at him with a look both more desperate and more heartbroken than the day he’d died. Harry, whose mouth was barely parted open as he briefly looked past Eggsy at the pile of rubble that had once been Kingsman. Harry, more unkempt than any ghost had a right to be, who locked eyes with Eggsy once he noticed that he hadn’t looked away.

‘He’s not here, Eggsy,’ it was plainly stated, completely at odds with the look on Harry’s face, but there was an immediate ringing in his ears as Eggsy threw himself from the car. He stumbled as he ran, heedless of the voices he was leaving behind, desperately combing his eyes over every bit of rubble. Strained his ears to see if there was a cry for help, a dying cough,  _ anything _ to show for the man who was missing from his ghostly entourage.

It was dark, it was rainy, and that made the task more than a little difficult. His oxfords slipped on the rock and if he’d had any brain cells to spare Eggsy would have grabbed his weaponised brolly. But he hadn’t any to spare and instead his velvet jacket (First one he’d designed  _ himself _ after getting settled at Kingsman. First thing that he’d felt encompassed the new him. First bit of Eggsy when he had to be Galahad) slowly soaked through. Eggsy growled to himself the third time he'd had to readjust the sleeves to keep looking, yanked the jacket off and tossed it to one side without pausing in his search.  _ Things _ didn't matter right now. 

'Well that's a poor way to treat some fine craftsmanship, lad,' Eggsy froze, half bent over, head tilted toward the voice he knew almost as well as his own, 'are you going to look at me or not, Eggsy?'

'Depends,' Eggsy sassed, voice far lighter than he felt, 'you a part of the blue man group?' The bit of rubble that struck him precisely between the shoulders before dropping into view had him grinning, and Eggsy scrambled to his feet proper before turning.

Merlin was soaked through, a familiar coat on his back and an unfamiliar cap on his head, a familiar brolly held in a white-knuckled grip. His face was drawn and his eyes were sad but Eggsy couldn't imagine a sight more welcome. He could cast a patronus from the realisation that he was not alone in this moment, in this loss.- he’d never wished this kind of thing onto anyone, and he had no intention of doing so in the future, but he couldn’t help but be beyond grateful to have someone to share this with.

'That'd work loads better if it were open, guv.' Merlin's lip twitched, but his chin wobbled, and that broke something. Eggsy didn't think about his next move, in the space of a breath he was pressed to Merlin's front, brolly trapped between them, arms wrapped about his torso.

At least the moisture seeping through could be blamed on the rain.

‘Of all the times to not check in on me-’ Merlin’s voice was thin, shaky, an entirely expected sound- but Harry’s voice was equally shattered and that renewed tears Eggsy’d thought he’d run out of.

‘Forgive a man his weaknesses, Hamish; I couldn’t bring myself to look for you only to find a body. Or whatever would be left of one.’ Eggsy’s eyes were still pressed to Merlin’s collarbone, and Merlin’s arms were still clutching at his shoulders, but he could practically see the looks on their faces. Determined, stubborn, heartbroken, with that small bit of hope in the eyes- as long as a Kingsman was alive things could be fixed. 

Perhaps not righted, there truly was no way to bring back the dead as they had once been, but this threat to the world could be eliminated. The rest would come later.


	3. And They All Fall Down

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is the last chapter of this set! I couldn't find a way to break the last chapter and have this in there that made sense. I felt like they were their own moments. So. Here this is, and I have to wonder if I'll keep having to add to this verse. Who knows! But this one is a bit lighter, overall? Hope it doesn't disappoint!

Merlin and Eggsy made their way through the jungle at a steady pace, they took every step as equals and every obstacle as a team. It wasn’t quite what Eggsy had envisioned, the first time he’d let himself think of his future as a spy, but it was amazing and he wanted this moment to _last._ This feeling of surety and confidence in his partner. Poppy had razed Kingsman, but together he and Merlin could fix it up again- especially with the collection of Unfinished Business agents trapped on this side of the veil. 

They could rebuild, once this was over.

‘Shit,’ Eggsy breathed, frozen in place as if that could undo what he’d just done, as if he could just believe _really hard_ and suddenly the landmine would disappear. _Well_ he reasoned to himself _at least I tried._ He took a moment to imagine an Indiana Jones styled solution, where there would just so _happen_ to be a stone or something that was the perfect weight to keep the mine from going off. A deus ex machina where he got out of his stupid mistake alive.

‘This spray will freeze the trigger mechanism for a split second,’ Eggsy’s eyes snapped open, and Merlin gave the cheekiest look Eggsy had ever seen, ‘and what I want you to do is-’ Harry hissed in a breath as Merlin pressed the trigger, and yanked Eggsy away at the same moment he’d stepped forward.

‘What the fuck, bruv?!’

‘Eggsy, lad, our lives were shoved together the day your father did the same thing for us. You’re the future of Kingsman, Eggsy- now go save the world.’

‘WHO THE FUCK FOR?!’ Eggsy wished he could scream without jeopardising their location. He wished he could stomp and rant and somehow come to a different conclusion than Merlin had. He wished he had options. ‘Give me the can, Merlin.’

‘If you want to collect rubbish feel free, but it’s empty. One use product.’

‘Fuck you.’ The expletive hadn’t come from Eggsy, ‘Didn’t I just say, at the start of all this, that I couldn’t bear to find your body? Why the _fuck_ would you think seeing your death would be any easier?’

‘I don’t- I just know that Eggsy’s the only way we’re getting the world through this. He’s the best of us, and that means he’s got to go on, because tomorrow’s always going to come Galahad. Even,’ Merlin whispered, eyes leaving Harry’s to look at Eggsy firmly, ‘if it must come without us.’

‘I sort of hate you right now.’ Eggsy took a shaky breath, refused to let his gaze waver- if there was one thing the man before him deserved, it was a witness. No matter how much it hurt.

‘That’s fine- I would, too, in your shoes. Now go- I’ll draw the guards to me, you go and get this shite done. Remember your training, or we’re all fucked.’

Eggsy didn’t quite know what to do on his own. Sure, he’d had loads of ideas but he couldn’t be sure of which was the _right_ choice, which was the _best_ option- it was something he’d relied on his senior agents to teach him. It was the thing Handlers were good at, making the distinction, and Eggsy was still mid-lesson, to be frank, so suddenly being left without a guiding voice in his ear was more than a bit jarring.

Well, not that he was _alone_ but he certainly couldn’t count on actual backup. He was about to storm PoppyLand with nothing but his wits and the barely-there sensation of ice at his back. His dad and the Spencer trio were already scoping out the area, so at least he would have a vague idea of what he was getting into. But he had no plan. Everything he’d had was geared toward a duo and he’d arrived a solo act. 

_Now, as all surviving agents are present, we follow the doomsday protocol. When that's done, and only then, you may shed a tear in private._

‘Oh, Merlin,’ Eggsy sighed, one foot dragging after the other in a poor imitation of movement, ‘when will it _ever_ be done?’ He knew Merlin was adjusting, was trying to play off his sudden arrival to the not-quite-afterlife with aplomb, and Eggsy couldn’t help the single tear that made its way down his face. 

‘In some ways it never is- and in others, it’s already done. But,’ Harry gave Eggsy a look he didn’t fully understand, ‘the only way out is through.’

‘That’s some bullshit they wrote up for a sympathy card, bruv- it don’t mean anything.’

‘On the contrary,’ Merlin interjected, jumper a much better look than the suit they’d seen him in last, ‘the line’s usually attributed to Robert Frost, and people don’t like sentiments like that in their sympathy cards. They’re all about “we’re here for you” or “it’s okay to be sad” as opposed to acknowledging that mourning is difficult.’

‘Didn’ know you had such strong opinions about cards, guv.’

‘If there’s one thing you should know, Eggsy, about Merlin it’s that he has an insatiable need to be correct.’ Harry dodged a smack from Merlin, and Eggsy stifled a chuckle he didn’t think he had in him.

‘Weren’t he the one that bitched about you causin’ him shite from beyond the grave?’

‘I never said he wasn’t a hypocrite, Eggsy- just that he needed to be right.’

‘You’re treading a fine line, Hart.’

‘Oh, what’re you going to do? Kill me?’

**Author's Note:**

> You can always find me on tumblr at [AgentDagonet](http://www.agentdagonet.tumblr.com) feel free to send me prompts or recs or just pop by to chat :)


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